Aurora-class battleship
The Aurora-class battleship was the primary warship of the Lantean fleet. These ships were armed with a considerable arsenal of drone and energy weapons. Aurora-class warships have interstellar hyperdrives, but could have them modified for much faster speeds. Built by the Lanteans, the Aurora-class is considered to be among the most advanced class of warship ever created. The Atlantis Expedition first encountered this class of ships in the form of the Aurora, and only four have been encountered since the fall of the Lanteans, excluding those built by the Asurans. The Lantean name for this class of ship has never been revealed. History It is known that the Lanteans once controlled an entire fleet of Aurora-class battleships, which were used in their war against the Wraith, with many ships equipped with Zero Point Modules. In the end, however, the Lanteans lost the war with most of their ships being destroyed. It is not known if the Aurora-class' were the most powerful vessels in the Lantean fleet other than the City-ship; however it has been implied that the Lantean fleet was more diverse. 10,000 years later, the Atlantis Expedition became aware of these ships when they detected the Aurora via Starbase Atlantis Long range sensors. After traveling to the location of the ship with the Daedalus they found the Aurora as a badly damaged vessel floating in space and the crew in stasis, infiltrated by a Wraith. To prevent the ship from falling in the hands of the Wraith, the Captain of the Aurora gave Colonel John Sheppard his code so that he could activate the self-destruct which destroyed the vessel. Later all such ships were designated as Aurora-class battleships in the crew's honor. Sometime later, the Atlantis Expedition made contact with the Taranians, who not only discovered a Lantean outpost on their planet but also a hangar with a damaged but repairable Aurora-class ship, named after the Lantean General Hippaforalkus. Since the planet was threatened by a supervolcano, the population was evacuated on the ship, (newly named ''Orion'') which then was repaired enough by Dr. Rodney McKay to escape the catastrophe. Grateful, the Taranians "loaned" the Atlantis Expedition the ship, which was then repaired to help fight against the Xindi, which were again on their way to Starbase Atlantis. ( ) These efforts, however, were slow going. After several weeks, the ship was, once again, fully capable of space flight. However, the shield and weapons system were in need of more attention. None the less, under Colonel John Sheppard's command, the ship joined the Daedalus to defend Starbase Atlantis against an approaching Xindi ship three weeks later. However, the ship was positioned beyond sensor range so as not to reveal its existence to the Xindi. Doctor Rodney McKay remained skeptical about the ship's hyperdrive capabilities and doubted the weapons would work in any case, rendering it of questionable usefulness. Upon arrival, the Xindi ship showed no ill-intentions, thus neither the Daedalus nor Orion ''were needed. Later the ''Orion, the , and the were sent on a mission to stop two Xindi-Reptilian warships from reaching Earth, they were able to destroy the Xindi ships and rescue McKay, Ronon, Lana, John Martin and Kira. ( ) '' moving past the Daedalus at .999 light speed]] About half a year later the Daedalus, while conducting a test with the new Midway space station, discovered another such ship, traveling at .999 the speed of light. It turned out to be the Lantean warship Tria, which was damaged by the Wraith. The crew of the ship was then evacuated by the Daedalus and brought back to Atlantis. Since the hyperspace engines of the Tria were irreparable, the ship was presumably abandoned in the intergalactic void. The last currently known ''Aurora''-class ship was found by a space traveling human race known as the Travelers. They abducted Sheppard and Kira so that they would "help" them activate the ship. After preventing the Xindi from getting the ship, it was repaired by the Travelers. This currently unnamed ship participated in the Battle of Asuras to defeat the Asurans once and for all. According to Katana Labrea, this Aurora-class ship was destroyed along with a Traveler generational ship, and a colony of 3,000 people was destroyed due to the Attero device, killing 3,000 Travelers and destroying two ships. The Asurans, who were able to duplicate much of Lantean technology, built their own fleet of nearly forty Aurora-class ships, but using older Ancient technology. One was sent to destroy the Asuran copy of Atlantis and the Organic Asuran copy of the First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team and Doctor Elizabeth Weir hitched a ride on it to Asuras. Using a core drive gotten from Niam's faction, the Daedalus and the Apollo were able to launch first strikes against these ships before they could destroy more human worlds. With the two BC-304s upgraded with quantum phasers, these ships were destroyed easily and the rest retreated to Asuras. There they came under attack by a fleet of Federation, Wraith, Xindi and Traveler ships during an effort to destroy the Asurans once and for all. The Asuran Aurora-class ships were no match for the fleet despite outnumbering it and were easily held off though they did destroy one Hive ship and one Traveler generational ship in the battle before the Asurans were pulled from their ships and into one huge blob of nanites. The ships that survived the battle were destroyed when Asuras exploded. One ship remained under the control of Niam's faction until they asceneded to subspace. The fate of the last remaining Asuran-built Aurora-class battleship remains unknown. Overview In terms of design, ships of the Aurora-class are visually long and slender, being far longer than they are wide. They possess a light brown hull with accents of dark brown outlining sections at the front and rear of the ships. While the Aurora-class overall appears rather sleek and symmetrical, the hull of the ships appears visually "chunky", being lined with arrays of weapons turrets, reinforcing plates, windows, and other systems. In terms of size, ships of the Aurora-class are quite large. For reference, Aurora-class ships are several times longer, taller, and wider than a Federation BC-304, and possess several times the internal space as well. They are far more comparable in size to a Wraith Hive ship, though even still appear smaller. In addition to being used extensively by the Lanteans, the Aurora-class was used extensively by the Asuran replicators. Until their destruction in 2381, and following the departure of the Ancients from the Pegasus galaxy 10,000 years ago, the Asurans were the only race actively constructing new vessels of the class, using it as their main class of battleship. Though the Asuran variant appears mostly identical to those used by the Lanteans, it is unclear if they posses all the same attributes; while the Lanteans would have been able to continue making improvements to the class for hundreds of years following their attempted 'eradication' of the Asurans, the design used by the Asurans would have remained stagnant in that time. Built by the Lanteans, the Aurora-class is considered to be among the most advanced class of warships ever created, with only the Asgard-modified ''Daedalus''-class seen to rival the power of at least older variants. It is unknown how an Asgard ''O'Neill''-class ship would fare against one of these vessels, but at peak capacity just one of them is more than a match for an entire fleet of Xindi warships or Goa'uld Ha'tak's. Design There are at least 3 variations of the Aurora-class design: *The Aurora variant is the largest seen, but little is known about it's defensive capabilities. *The ''Orion'' variant was much smaller than the Aurora. It did not have a Control chair on the bridge. *The Ares variant was almost identical to the Orion in exterior appearance, but the bridge was larger and had a Control chair in the center. It is unknown if these variants are actually the same class of ship - it is possible that the Orion and the Ares used by the Lantean fleet were not built as Aurora class battleships by the Lanteans and therefore may possess very different offensive and defensive abilities. If they were the same class, however, then it is likely that the variations came as upgrades to the original design, but it is unknown in which order the three seen variants were constructed. The Asurans use older variations of the Aurora class battleships. They are most similar in appearance to the Orion, but do not appear to be as powerful as they rely on outdated technology. Their drones do not appear to be able to destroy alien ships with the same ease as the Orion's, and their shields cannot withstand as much fire. They proved inefficient against Daedalus-class ships upgraded with quantum phasers. Technology Command and control systems These spaceships contained a subspace communications array allowing them to send out distress signals or communicate at faster-than-light speeds with other vessels at interstellar distances. They can also project stable holograms onto other ships capable of also projecting sound, however sound cannot be transmitted back to the projecting ship. This may just be because of the massive difference in speed and the distance it was being transmitted and that when they are closer and travelling at a similar speed it may be possible. Offensive and defensive systems The Aurora-class boasts an arsenal of drone weapons that are capable of destroying a Asuran warship in mere seconds, and have shown the ability to bypass shielding systems used by the Asurans and Surai with great ease. They are very accurate and can hit multiple targets at a time, even after their host ship is destroyed. Auroras are also equipped with a more conventional energy weapon, which is unguided and far less powerful than drones but still capable of destroying Asuran ships and causing severe damage to Asuran warships. pulse turrets'']] For secondary weaponry, the ship features at least 16 pulse weapon turrets placed around the ship, allowing for complete coverage of the vessel. While these weapons are much weaker than drones, they are still capable of destroying a shielded Traveler generational ship and heavily damaging a Xindi-Reptilian warship with several shots. The pulse weapons are however much less effective against the advanced Asgard shields of the ''Daedalus''-class vessels. The Asuran Aurora-class ships seem to be less powerfull, their drones are incapable of penetrating even the Travelers shields, while their shields can be depleted by a barrage of Xindi warships and F-302 weapons fire, or 3 to 5 shots with the quantum phasers. Their hyperspace capacity is more limited, however, it seems to be comparable to the hyperspace capacity of the Orion. Shields The shields of the Aurora-class have been shown to mimic the contour of the hull. These shielding systems allow Aurora-class battleships to withstand intense weapons fire even when little power is being fed into them, and they have also been shown to protect Aurora-class battleships from the intense heat and pressure of the eruption of a super volcano for slightly more than four seconds (even though the ship in question had barely enough power to bring the hyperdrive online for a short jump into the outer orbit of the planet). However, the ship's hull appears much less durable, sustaining heavy damage even from phasers or F-302 torpedoes and easily being penetrated by quantum phasers. Shields energy and power systems Although it is unknown what the primary energy source of the Aurora-class is, the Lanteans were known to occasionally install a Zero Point Module to give them an extra 'boost'. Even without them the ships are capable of remaining active for long durations of time. In the first ever encountered Aurora-class battleship by the Federation, the Aurora, the power had remained active for 10,000 years maintaining the crew's stasis pods without a ZPM. Hyperdrive and propulsion systems The Aurora-class possesses the fastest sublight engines known to exist. Though they are typically operated at conventional sublight speeds, the Tria's engines were modified to be able to sustain .999 of the speed of light for 10,000 years. The sublight engine units are located at the rear of the ship. There, a grouping of four individual and roughly triangular-shaped engine units are located on either side of a central grouping composed of three smaller circular units. Furthermore, further up along the ship's length, there is a single circular engine unit present on both sides of the ship positioned on a section of the hull that protrudes away from the ship's midsection. The original design of all Aurora-class ships included an interstellar hyperdrive, limiting the vessel for operation only within the Pegasus galaxy. As the Ancients clearly possessed intergalactive hyperdrive technology at the time that the Aurora-class was created (as such hyperdrives were present on city ships which had originally been created millions of years prior) it is possible that this interstellar limit was intentional, perhaps to prevent the Wraith from reverse-engineering their own intergalactic drive or to maintain a quarantine against the Plague. Despite not possessing them natively, the interstellar hyperdrives of Aurora-class ships may be modified to traverse intergalactic distances. Other systems Aurora-class ships possess a subspace communications array allowing them to send out distress signals or communicate at faster-than-light speeds with other vessels at interstellar distances. They can also project stable holograms onto other ships capable of also projecting sound. To protect the crew in the event of critical damage, ships of the Aurora-class are equipped with several hundred stasis pods. While in stasis, the mind of each person can be connected through the ship's main computer as to allow for virtual interaction with the other crew members in stasis. While these pods significantly slow aging, they do not fully stop it; Over the course of 10,000 years, the adult crew of the Aurora was severely aged to the point that removing them from stasis would have immediately resulted in their deaths.. Interior Auxiliary control room Aurora-class battleships contain a secondary control center where ship systems can be controlled If the bridge was ever destroyed or made uninhabitable. From this position, a crewman was capable of tracking the activities of individuals throughout the ship, scan life signs, and control access to corridors. Numerous control terminals were present in the room, which mimic the consoles on Lantean outposts in appearance. Colonel Sheppard journeyed to the auxiliary bridge after the destruction of the Aurora's main bridge by a Asuran cruiser weapons fire. Through it, he was able to launch drones at the enemy ship and determine how many Asurans had boarded the vessel. It only has to be activated, then it can be used by anyone. Much like Lantean City-ships, Aurora-class battleships contain a secondary control center where ship's systems can be controlled If the bridge was ever destroyed or made uninhabitable. From this position, a crewman is capable of tracking the activities of individuals throughout the ship, scanning life signs, and controlling access to corridors. Numerous control terminals are present in the room. Bridge The bridge of the Aurora-class can control most (if not all) basic systems required for the battleship to function. It is located in the middle of the top side of the ship. The front of the bridge consists of several large windows, allowing for a wide field of view, while the bridge's rear walls contain numerous panels and displays (similar to those of the Atlantis control room). The bridge of the Aurora-class contains a captain's chair located near the center of the bridge. While different from a traditional Ancient control chair, from this chair, an individual possessing the Ancient Technology Activation gene can control most, if not all, of the ship's functions. Additionally, some Aurora-class ships have consoles located on either side of the chair. File:Aurora bridge.jpg|The bridge of the Aurora File:Orion bridge.png|The bridge of the Orion AuroraCommandChair.jpg|The bridge of the [[Traveler Aurora-class battleship|Traveler's Aurora-class battleship]] Brig These vessels contain brigs which are used to detain prisoners and appeared as metal bars which could hold enemies. On the Aurora, the brig is an empty room devided into two sections by bars with forcefields between them. On another Aurora-class battleships, the brig was smaller and used more physical wall and less forcefield. Both brigs are similar in design to the cells on Asuran warships. It is also possible that all variations of Aurora have both types of brig, used for storing different types, or different numbers, of prisoners. ]] Two configurations of brigs are known to exist on Aurora-class vessels. The brig of the Aurora consisted of a large room surrounded by thin metal bars, between which a forcefield was projected. The bridge of the Traveler's Aurora-class battleship consisted of a grid of thick metals bars for the walls, with an un-barred forcefield being used as a doorway to allow entrance into and out of the cell. Weapons control platform Many of the qualities of an Aurora-class battleship are similar to that of a Lantean outpost. This includes the chair room, where a Lantean control chair, also known as a weapon's control platform, is present in the middle which allows the use of the ship's complement of drone weapons. Presumably, the ship's other weapons are also controlled here. It is located at the rear of the vessel and contained a visual screen on the wall which contained a display of certain systems. It was possible for a person to be sealed in the room as was the case with Larrin who was locked in the room by John Sheppard. Ships of the Aurora-class are equipped with an Ancient control chair, also known as a weapon's control platform, which allows the ship's complement of Drone weapons to be fired. The control chair is located in its own room, separate from the ship's bridge or auxiliary control center, which is located at the rear of the vessel. This room additionally contains a visual display. It is unknown if other ship systems, or secondary weapon systems, can be accessed from this location. Other locations *Captain's quarters *Drone storage *Hangar bays: For use of Puddle Jumpers, vessel's of this class contain at least three bays, although more may exist. Known ships During the course of the Atlantis Expedition's tenure in the Kaleb system, several Aurora-class battleships have been encountered or referenced, the vast majority of which have remained unnamed, such as the [[Traveler Aurora-class battleship|Traveler's Aurora-class battleship]]. Known ships include the Aurora, Ares, Orion (originally named Hippaforalkus), ''Avenger'' and Tria. *When Niam showed Dr. Elizabeth Weir the Lanteans attempt to destroy the Asurans, several Aurora-class ships were seen firing either Drone weapons or what appeared to be energy weapons at the outpost. *During the war, as many as 38 Aurora-class warships were built, launched and used by the Asurans. Seven of these warships were destroyed by the quantum phasers aboard the newly retrofitted Daedalus and Apollo during ambushes, an unknown amount were destroyed by the Xindi, and the rest of the Asuran fleet was destroyed when Dr. Rodney McKay and Colonel Samantha Carter developed a method of destroying the Asuran homeworld. Every Aurora-class warship orbiting the planet not destroyed during the battle itself was caught in the explosion. *The remnants of Niam's faction managed to steal an Aurora-class warship from the Asurans, which they used to escape the Asuran fleet during Oberoth's manhunt for them. It is unknown what happened to the ship. It was either likely left on the planet or the faction of Replicators set the ship to self-destruct. Category:Federation starships Category:Ancient ships